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| | | | | | Today's Menu ☕️
💸 X Partners with Visa to Launch Digital Wallet and P2P Payments
🤖 DeepSeek Disrupts AI Industry, Triggering $600 Billion Market Cap Loss for NVIDIA
📚 SC Ventures and Yabx invest $10 million in African education financing platform Furahas
🛜 Safaricom pursues approval for own undersea cable to boost internet connectivity
💸 NjiaPay secures over $1 million in pre-seed funding to streamline payments for African businesses |
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| | | | | If you haven't subscribed, join over 7,000 people curious about Innovation, New Products, New Technologies in Africa. | |
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| | | | | 💸 PAYMENTS | X launches digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment services in partnership with Visa | | On Tuesday, Elon Musk's social media platform, X, unveiled an exciting new feature: a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment services, made possible through a partnership with Visa, the largest credit card network in the United States. This announcement was made by CEO Linda Yaccarino in a post on the platform, highlighting the significance of this collaboration. | The newly introduced service, dubbed the X Money Account, will empower users to seamlessly transfer funds between their traditional bank accounts and their digital wallets. Additionally, it will facilitate instant peer-to-peer payments, similar to popular services like Zelle and Venmo. This marks a pivotal step for X as it embarks on its journey to establish a comprehensive financial ecosystem within the social media landscape........…continue reading |
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| | | | | 🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | DeepSeek Disrupts AI Industry, Triggering $600 Billion Market Cap Loss for NVIDIA | | In a dramatic turn of events, NVIDIA, the world's leading AI chipmaker, experienced an unprecedented decline in market value, shedding nearly $600 billion in a single day. This historic downturn was triggered by the emergence of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that unveiled a groundbreaking AI model capable of rivaling Western counterparts like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, but developed with significantly fewer resources. | DeepSeek's innovative approach demonstrated that high-performance AI models could be trained using substantially less computing power and at a fraction of the cost previously deemed necessary. This revelation sent shockwaves through the tech industry, leading investors to reassess the future demand for NVIDIA's high-end GPUs. The market reacted swiftly, with NVIDIA's stock plummeting by 17%, marking the largest single-day loss in market capitalization in history.........…continue reading |
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| | | | | 📚 EDUCATION | SC Ventures and Yabx invest $10 million in African education financing platform Furaha | | SC Ventures, the innovation and fintech investment arm of Standard Chartered, has entered into a series of shareholder and technology collaboration agreements with Yabx Technologies, a subsidiary of the Tech Mahindra group based in the Netherlands. This partnership formalizes their joint investment in Furaha, a purpose-driven lending platform focused on enhancing financial accessibility across sub-Saharan Africa. | As part of this collaboration, SC Ventures has committed $7 million, while Yabx BV has contributed through technology transfer, resulting in a total combined investment of $10 million in Furaha. Incubated by SC Ventures and co-founded by Yustus Aribariho and Ian Fernandes, Furaha aims to revolutionize access to finance, with its initial focus on education financing. | Furaha is headquartered in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in the UAE and is set to expand its services to local markets in Africa, beginning with Uganda as its inaugural market..........…continue reading |
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| | | | | 🛰️ COMMUNICATION | China's CGST Beats Elon Musk's Starlink with 6G Laser Tech | | While still reflecting on the emergence of DeepSeek and its seeming superiority over OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, another news from the East is trending. This time it is about China's Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. (CGST). This Chinese company has achieved a record-breaking 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) data transmission rate in satellite-to-ground laser communications, positioning China ahead of competitors like Elon Musk's Starlink in the race for advanced satellite communication technologies. | According to reports, the breakthrough was accomplished during a test involving a truck-mounted ground station and one of the 117 satellites in the Jilin-1 constellation, the world's largest sub-meter commercial remote sensing satellite network. The achieved speed is ten times faster than CGST's previous record, enabling the transmission of ten full-length movies from a satellite to Earth in just one second. | Wang Hanghang, CGST's head of laser communication ground station technology, highlighted the significance of this achievement, noting that while Starlink has developed inter-satellite laser communication, it has not yet implemented laser communication from satellites to the ground. He emphasized that CGST has already commenced large-scale deployment of this technology.........…..continue reading |
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| | | | | 🛜 TELECOMS | Safaricom pursues approval for own undersea cable to boost internet connectivity | | Safaricom, the leading telecommunications company in Kenya, is reportedly in the process of seeking regulatory approval from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to establish its own undersea cable. This significant move, if approved, would mark a pivotal development in the company's operations and the broader telecommunications landscape in the region. | The Communications Authority of Kenya, which serves as the independent regulatory body for the country's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, has confirmed that Safaricom has formally applied for undersea cable landing rights. Securing these rights would enable Safaricom to operate and maintain multiple submarine cables that connect to Kenya, thereby enhancing its infrastructure for internet connectivity. | Should the CA grant approval, this strategic initiative could substantially bolster Safaricom's capacity to deliver high-speed internet services, improve overall connectivity, and reduce its reliance on third-party cable providers. Currently, Safaricom, under the leadership of CEO Peter Ndengwa, depends on several external submarine cable systems, including SEACOM, the East African Submarine System (Eassy), TEAMS, and Telkom Kenya, to meet its international bandwidth needs.....…..continue reading |
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| | | | | OTHER STORIES | Norfund doubles investment in CrossBoundary Energy to accelerate renewable energy expansion in Africa……..continue reading Bluesky introduces video tab to user profiles…..continue reading Qualcomm opens applications for Make in Africa Startup Mentorship Programme to support emerging tech startups…….continue reading Fincart.io secures pre-Seed funding to revolutionize e-commerce logistics for SMBs in Africa and the Middle East…..continue reading
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| | | | | OPPORTUNITIES | Applications are now open for the Women Techsters Fellowship Programme, a free, one-year initiative designed to equip young girls and women with high-demand technology skills. Deadline = 31st January 2025……..continue reading The Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC) calls on bold thinkers and trailblazers to apply for funding and support under its 2024 Innovation Initiative. Deadline = 31st January 2025…..continue reading Global payment card network Visa has announced the opening of applications for the fourth edition of its biannual Africa Fintech Accelerator. Deadline = 15th March 2025…….continue reading Applications are now open for the Timbuktoo MineTech Accelerator programme, a groundbreaking initiative by the Timbuktoo MineTech Hub aimed at driving innovation in mining technology, empowering startups, and scaling transformative technologies within the African mining sector. Deadline = 13th February 2025…..continue reading
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Innovation Village |
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